Researchers show that 3-D technique is capable of real-time optical quantitative imaging through endoscopes.

Nearly half of all surgeries in the U.S. are minimally invasive procedures, aimed at improving patient care while lowering the healthcare financial burden. In such procedures, endoscopes help doctors see inside patients' bodies without the need for large incisions. There has been a strong push for optical technologies that improve on traditional endoscopic procedures to provide doctors with a better view.

Unfortunately, most of these techniques can't quantify optical measurements, and are therefore subject to interpretation and user experience. As a result, there is a need to develop real-time quantitative imaging techniques to provide clinicians guidance during endoscopic procedures.

In a study published in the November issue of Biomedical Optics Express, Sylvain Gioux of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and his colleagues provide proof-of-concept evidence that an imaging technique they previously developed, called 3-D single snapshot of optical properties (3D-SSOP), is capable of real-time optical quantitative imaging through endoscopes. 3D-SSOP is a method that acquires maps of the sample’s optical properties and surface topography from a single snapshot acquisition.

Here’s how it works: A pattern containing two superimposed sinusoidal waves, orthogonal to each other, is projected onto the tissue. The pattern along the X direction is used for processing optical properties, while the other pattern along the Y direction is used for extracting the sample’s surface topography.

The simple instrumentation, which can be added to a commercial endoscope, accurately and precisely measured the optical properties and the surface topography of "phantoms" -- test objects that resemble actual tissue. The researchers also demonstrated the usefulness of their approach for acquiring videos of a moving phantom and hand. According to the authors, this work lays the foundation for visualizing tissues inside patients' bodies using real-time quantitative optical imaging through an endoscope.